political parties

National’s weird take on the Government’s Climate Adaption Plan

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:05 am, August 4th, 2022 - 7 comments

The Government’s release of the National Adaption Plan to deal with climate change has been met by National with an insistence that who should pay for potentially hundreds of billions of costs should have already been identified.

Chris Bishop supports AND opposes vaccine mandates

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:28 am, August 3rd, 2022 - 51 comments

Remember when National’s Chris Bishop thought that Labour was not being staunch enough of mandates? He now thinks that Labour is being too staunch.

Why stick more fingers in the donations dyke?

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 9:50 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 13 comments

The latest attempt to construct a sensible political donations regime will likely again prove to be full of holes. Going back to basics would be much better. The good news is that the basics were comprehensively assessed 36 years ago by the 1986 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform. It recommended state funding.

Political donations law needs reform

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:44 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 7 comments

Judge Jagose’s decision to acquit two persons linked to New Zealand First charged with obtaining control over $750,000 has opened up rather large holes in the obligations of political parties to report donations.

Poverty is a political choice, why are Labour choosing it?

Written By: weka - Date published: 1:30 pm, August 1st, 2022 - 54 comments

Labour announced earlier in the year that it would give a $350 cash transfer to all New Zealanders earning less than $70,000.

Except beneficiaries.

Best yet in National Party splatter series in production

Written By: Simon Louisson - Date published: 1:31 pm, July 28th, 2022 - 46 comments

The kicker in Andrea Vance’s Blue Blood, her insider’s view of the splatter-movie that has been the National Party since John Key stepped down, is that the best yet is in production. She chronicles treachery that has become the modus operandi of the vacuous vipers inhabiting the caucus. Details of the dirty work induce you to turn the page for more. It doesn’t look like Luxon is the redeemer.

Luxon goes to Te Puke Hawaii

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:00 am, July 27th, 2022 - 58 comments

The question of what has happened to Christopher Luxon was answered yesterday in a shambolic messy way that must have National operatives in despair.

Really bad takes on the Green’s leadership issue

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:55 am, July 26th, 2022 - 60 comments

There have been some spectacularly bad takes on Green Party leadership issues by voices on the right and academia which were all shown to be spectacularly wrong after Chloe Swarbrick announced that she was not seeking the Green Party leadership.

The inside story of National’s civil war

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 12:24 pm, July 25th, 2022 - 16 comments

Andrea Vance’s book Blood Bath provides an insider’s view of the carnage that erupted in the National Party from 2017 to 2021. And while things have calmed down under Christopher Luxon’s his weaknesses, including his glossing over the importance of policy detail and his tendency to bag businesses has been noted.

James Shaw and the Green Party co-leadership

Written By: weka - Date published: 11:38 am, July 24th, 2022 - 189 comments

The tension in the Green Party is between pragmatism and the need for urgent system change.

For the public, there’s no need to panic. Dissent is valuable and healthy in politics. It sits alongside trusting that the Greens know how to manage their internal processes even if the public at large doesn’t understand them well.

Brian Tamaki really annoys Auckland by adding to traffic congestion

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:21 am, July 24th, 2022 - 53 comments

Brian Tamaki and Vision New Zealand supporters sought to improve levels of support by causing significant congestion in Auckland city yesterday.

Wear your #$%^& mask properly

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:38 am, July 16th, 2022 - 90 comments

Although we still compare favourably to the vast majority of Western nations in terms of our Covid response our performance has been eclipsed by Japan and Singapore, two nations which strong mask mandates and cultural norms supporting the wearing of masks.

Luxon is still struggling to understand Mask rules

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:05 am, July 14th, 2022 - 28 comments

During January of this year Christopher Luxon described the traffic light system as confusing. This week he described it as “very, very confusing”. It is of concern that he appears not to have learned about what the rules require in the meantime.

Luxon goes to London to get campaign ideas

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:20 am, July 8th, 2022 - 19 comments

At the very time that the United Kingdom Conservative Government is imploding National leader Chris Luxon is visiting to get new ideas on how to run a country.

How Can Labour Win in 2023?

Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:57 am, July 7th, 2022 - 213 comments

Right now Labour is preparing the ground for its run at 2023’s election with new policy. New policy must be wildly popular. What could make Labour popular enough to them back leading a third term in government?

The $11 billion man strikes again

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:41 am, July 7th, 2022 - 22 comments

Remember Steven Joyce who claimed there was a $11.7 billion dollar hole in Labour’s alternative budget? Another example of his negotiation prowess has recently received media attention and the only conclusion that can be drawn is that his ability to analyse crown accounts is matched by his ability to negotiate.

Hey Free Speech Union, Simon O’Connor is being muzzled

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:05 am, June 28th, 2022 - 41 comments

Someone should send out the free speech police. Simon O’Connor has been muzzled and is being stopped from saying what he thinks.

Christopher Luxon’s many and varied abortion takes

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:42 am, June 27th, 2022 - 103 comments

National leader Christopher Luxon who has been previously reported as believing that abortion is murder, issued three public statements over the weekend trying to distance himself from the controversy caused by the US Supreme Court overturning of Rowe v Wade.

Matariki and Prime Minister Ardern

Written By: advantage - Date published: 10:16 am, June 24th, 2022 - 73 comments

Plenty of experts will tell you about what Matariki ‘means to us’. Here’s what it means to Ardern.

Luxon has been Susied on National Radio

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 11:04 am, June 22nd, 2022 - 68 comments

This morning on Morning Report Christopher Luxon was well and truly Susied as Susie Ferguson asked him how can we have tax cuts yet improved public services.

How Democracy Weakens

Written By: advantage - Date published: 1:45 pm, June 21st, 2022 - 31 comments

It’s pretty commonplace now to observe that Prime Minister Ardern is doing well overseas but tanking at home.

The Tauranga by election

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 7:00 pm, June 18th, 2022 - 64 comments

The Tauranga by election has been one of the most low key by elections held in some time. The polls are now closed. If Labour get within 25 points of National they can regard this as a victory.

Human rights, culture wars and the right

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 10:49 am, June 17th, 2022 - 39 comments

Christopher Luxton has proposed that social media posts showing gang members wearing bling should be censored. And in the United Kingdom Boris Johnson has railed against a ECHR decision which has upset his efforts to illegally extradite refugee status applicants to Rwanda. These are different examples of something the right is finessing, culture wars against minorities in breach of their rights for political advantage.

The Cabinet reshuffle

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:52 am, June 14th, 2022 - 64 comments

There was some drama yesterday in the Beehive where Kris Faafoi and Trevor Mallard announced that they will be resigning from Parliament and Jacinda Ardern took the opportunity to reshuffle the Cabinet.

Gang Control Policy Is Back Big Time

Written By: advantage - Date published: 6:08 pm, June 12th, 2022 - 16 comments

We are about to have a proper gang control policy contest. It’s about time.

National’s anti gang policies and the Bill of Rights

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 4:09 pm, June 12th, 2022 - 33 comments

This weekend National threw out a few hunks of red meat to some of its more rabid supporters by going to its old favourite of gang bashing.

An appeal to Putin’s Apologists

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 10:10 am, June 12th, 2022 - 121 comments

Guest with a life of anti-fascist and anti-war activism in their rear-view mirror, alarmingly finds at fifty that they are staring at the green shoots of fascism in their headlights.This is not where any progressive expected to be. But for the left, there is also no discounting fascist action by offering up the reasoning of the aggressor.

He Waka Eke Noa?

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:02 am, June 10th, 2022 - 16 comments

The He Waka Eke Noa report recommends the introduction of farm-level split-gas levy on agricultural emissions. The anticipated savings are very small and reliant on Government proposals for the sector to reaching the Government target of 10% methane reduction. Are we really all in this together?